


"STORY TIME!! - John Scars Us for Life!"

by Digishima



Series: The Race to 10,000! One-Offs and Drabbles [2]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Youtubers, Genderfluid Character, M/M, Minor Violence, Trans Character, Youtuber AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-27 00:59:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9943196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Digishima/pseuds/Digishima
Summary: John and Charles both looked uneasy. It's not hard to pick up by any means, which is saying something considering how oblivious Thomas can be sometimes. Thankfully, Alex picked up on that as well, taking both of their hands. "So, this is really a story about how stupid kids can be in elementary school," starts Alex, "And especially how stupid we were. When I moved here to live with the Washington's, I was reckless."Aaron snorted and Alex turned to glare at him. "Sorry, 'was?'"--IE. I couldn't think of a summary so I copy-pasted part of the story.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A YouTuber AU Drabble for my series "The Race to 10,000!" I've been planning to write this for forever and I'm sorry this took so long. This is the retelling of "The Duel" in this Universe so please be aware of that.

James made a sound, some mix between a snort and a cough, from the couch behind Thomas. He stopped mid-sentence and turned to face his boyfriend. "You okay?"

James nodded and turned his laptop screen so Thomas could see. "Alex posted a vlog. 'John Scars Us for Life'. I'm gonna get my headphones."

As the larger man went to stand, Thomas smashed in the key command to end his recording. "Wait, I want to watch it too!" He jumped up, nearly tripping over his swivel chair. James laughed at him carefully, letting Thomas jump beside him and wrap an arm around his shoulders while he loaded up the video on his laptop.

Alex's face popped up, sans his usual intro, and he was already talking.

"Hey, guys! I'm Alex, AKA Little Lion, and today is gonna be a little different! No games today, kids. It's story time!!" Thomas could hear a few people laughing from off-camera and imagined that it would have to be the rest of the 'Revolutionaries.' Alex continued, ignoring whoever it was. "So, in the last Revolutionary Let's Play, a bunch of you guys heard us freak out about the opening scene in Tomb Raider, where Lara gets impaled in the side. A lot of you, however, also picked out us saying stuff along the lines of 'Not again' and were asking about it. Sammy, can you cut that clip and add it in?"

Thomas laughed as an animated cartoon of Sam Seabury walked across the screen and pulled down a transition into the playthrough clip. Hercules, Lafayette, and John all setting around, watching Alex play through the introduction. When Lara hit the ground and was impaled by a piece of metal, the entire group freaked out. Thomas, watching the scene, flinched, but didn't have nearly the same reaction as the men and person on screen. The animated Seabury pushed the transition back to Alex.

"Thanks, Sam," he called, waving at the bottom corner jokingly. "So, anyway. Yeah, a lot of you picked up on that, and were wondering about that. So, I've talked to everyone who was involved. They've all agreed to let me tell the story. They're gonna come out now and join me on the story time couch."

As Alex made the "come over" motions, John popped up from one side and sat beside him, lazily throwing an arm around his waist. From the other side of the screen, Charles Lee and Alex's adoptive brother, Aaron Burr, sat on the other side of Alex.

John and Charles both looked uneasy. It's not hard to pick up by any means, which is saying something considering how oblivious Thomas can be sometimes. Thankfully, Alex picked up on that as well, taking both of their hands. "So, this is really a story about how stupid kids can be in elementary school," starts Alex, "And especially how stupid we were. When I moved here to live with the Washington's, I was reckless."

Aaron snorted and Alex turned to glare at him. "Sorry, 'was?'"

"Did I stutter?" Alex asked. He turned back to the camera. "Okay, so maybe I am a bit reckless, still. The point is that I was wild and there was a point where the Washingtons told me I had to not fight for, like, a week. Which sure, that's a hard thing for me. Even now. But, as a kid I had even less control."

"And of course Alex tells us - Me, Laf and Herc - as soon as he gets to school," John continued. He pat the top of Alex's head. "No one else had heard that Alex couldn't fight, but he did have a reputation."

Charles cut in, "And I was a complete asshole as a kid."

Aaron ran his hand through his boyfriend's hair, "Yes. Yes, you were."

"We all were," John assured, reaching behind Alex to put a hand on Charles' shoulder. "It's just part of being a kid."

Alex nodded. "Back to the story."

Charles moved to lay back against the cushion. "I was talking shit about the Washingtons. As a kid, they were my next door neighbors and my parents were always gone, so I would stay with them and Aaron a lot. When Alex came along, the entire dynamic changed and I felt left out so I would always try to fight with Alex. And one day I start yelling really loud in the playground about how the Washington's suck, trying to make him mad."

"Aaron and I had to literally hold Alex back to stop him from straight up pouncing on Charlie here." John was kicking his leg idly. "Aaron reminds Alex about getting in trouble and Alex says that he can't just let someone talk shit about his parents. So, I tell him I'll fight instead so he won't get in trouble."

Aaron held up a hand to stop John from going on. "I just want to cut in here and say that even though we went to a good school district, our playground was the cheapest piece of crap I have ever seen."

Offscreen someone yelled to Burr, "Who do you fear?!"

Aaron ignored them. "It was falling apart and it was a surprise that no one had ever gotten hurt on it before."

Thomas got the sinking feeling he knew where this was going. John and Charles had a fight on a cheap playground and John probably did something to hurt Lee.

"I was standing on the top of one of the fixtures." The noirette tapped his foot, starting to look nervous again. "And when John came up to fight me, Alex and Aaron were still on the ground. So I pushed John, and he hit against the support beam for something underneath it. And I guess that push broke one of the beams at the bottom."

"So, I grabbed Lee. And we spin for a bit and eventually, I get Lee to the edge and I push him off. We weren't more than a yard or two from the ground, so I didn't think he'd get hurt," John took over the story, "But he hit against the already broken piece on the bottom and the entire beam falls over except for this metal suppor that was under it. And it just-just goes right through his side."

"Aaron is beside him immediately and is way too fucking calm for a kid & is trying to keep Charles calm," Alex continued, "and I look off to find the teacher who was on recess duty and all the other kids are screaming. It's scary, honestly, too see another kid hurt so badly."

"All I could think about was to keep Charlie from freaking out or trying to get up and make it worse," Aaron explained, "You could hear Alex screaming to call 9-1-1 from across the field and it just didn't feel real."

Charles brushed a hand across his side. "I couldn't really feel anything for a while, not until the paramedics got there and took me away and I don't remember anything, really. Just, that I was on the ground and Aaron was with me and that something wasn't right and I needed to keep laying down."

It was quiet for a long moment, and the tense feeling was something Thomas felt just watching the video. Finally, John took a deep breath. "The first thing Charles asked when Aaron told him to stay down was ask if I was hurt, that's something you never forget. I was leaning over the platform, watching him. I was the only one on there, and I didn't want to move because I was afraid it would hurt him more if I did.

"The ambulance was there after, hell, maybe five minutes but it was forever in kid time. And when they came and got him, he started crying because he didn't want to go alone so me and Aaron and Alex all lied and said we were his siblings and we were all adopted and the teacher who was there didn't really stop us, she just said she would call our parents and took everyone else inside."

"I guess I must have passed out." Charles was gripping Aaron's hand tight. "What was fuzzy for me just turned black and when I woke up, I was laying in a hospital bed and John was holding my hand and he hugged me really tight and we cried a lot and he apologized for hurting me. And when I looked over at the other side Aaron and Alex were sleeping in a chair together and George and Martha were there, too."

"The Lees were in Poland for some business thing and couldn't make it back, so they insisted that Charlie have some sort of parental figure waiting for him when he woke up." Aaron kisses the top of Lee's head, which worked to calm the other man down slightly.

Charles sighed, "I was in the hospital for three weeks and when I got home, I had to stay with the Washingtons because they didn't trust my nanny to be able to take care of me. I missed a month of school and George sued the school for having such unsafe equipment. The school tried to blame John, but they lost because we were kids and the thing shouldn't have broken in the first place just because a couple of kids were playing a bit rough on it."

Alex patted his shoulder. "And that's pretty much the entire story. We all saw Lee get really hurt and it freaked us all out, so that's why we freaked out when we saw something similar in the game. Everyone, let's thank Charlie because telling a story like that is really brave of him. He's a strong gay-whoops, guy." Alex simply beamed when the intentional slip got a smile from the man.

"He's got a great channel where he talks about dogs every day," Alex prattled on, "You should check him out. And John here, you know, he has an art channel where he posts when he isn't in the Revolutionary videos. Next week, we're going to have a special event where a bunch of guest who don't show up very often on this channel will be up. More details will be uploaded to all of our channels later this week, so keep an eye out."

Thomas heard a voice that was most definitely Sam yell out to them, "Say goodbye, everyone!"

The couch's inhabitants waved and said their goodbyes. The video cut out and was replaced with Related Video tiles. Thomas sat back. "Wow, think that's why Lee has Spada?"

James shook his head. "Lee told me that Spada is because he has really severe anxiety that acts up in crowded areas, but he's got secondary training for PTSD. I think that may have caused that, though."

Thomas nodded thoughtfully and sat there for a moment before a loud text notification rang out from Thomas's desk. He stood and made his way over to grab his phone. "It's from Hamilton. For the both of us?"

James hummed, "What's it say?"

"It says 'I'm gathering everyone on campus who does YouTube videos regularly to have a 24-Hour Charity stream. Can I count on you and James to be there, too?' I think we should do it. You in?"

"Sure. I'm not much of a youtuber, though. I'm more like, a background prop."

"But you're my background prop," Thomas replied, shooting Alex a text that they would both be there before he sat back down to finish recording. "Now, where was I?"


End file.
